So, I liked the idea of giving my Guardians Support Platforms so much, I did it twice! A local friend in the hobby scene was selling a couple of the new plastic weapon platforms (as new as a 2006 sculpt can be, technically – new to me!) Needless to say, I took them off his hands and while I initially built them up to be interchangeable, because of a few push-fit miscalculations on my part, these are permanent locked in as Shadow Weaver support platforms now – no complaints here, though. I was lucky enough to get to run them in a game I did recently and they put in work. But like everything Aeldari, they’re part of a larger toolkit and I think I figured out better what they do well, and what they don’t do well, and how to use and not to use them.

Like the rest of my army, I went with white as the primary color with a sort of monochrome black-blue for shading, tabards, and other details, along with metallic blues and neon pinks for a little added contrast, and I’m very happy with how the neon pink looked on the cannon barrels. I recognize that in-lore they’re probably not supposed to have that kind of glow or be plasma-adjacent, but I wanted an excuse to paint a few glowy bits on. I have to say, I always thought these would be larger from the pictures I’ve seen of them online – I think I assumed they’d sit on a 50mm base or maybe even 65mm, and I’m kind of impressed how well they work on 40mm. I just used the stock bases this time, mostly because I wanted these painted in time to start the local open games season on weekends and.

So, in terms of what they do well, they are a phenomenal anti-horde weapon because of the ability to inflict mortal wounds on movement, and indirect fire makes them great for cutting away “bubble wrap” units before I move units like Guardians or Banshees in. I think that’s exclusively how I’m going to try and use them. I made the mistake of getting greedy and trying to put their firing into a bunch of Marine-equivalent units, and while they chipped away at these squads it wasn’t using these to their most effective, and it came back to bite me hard in the late-game. I think they’re also a great weapon as a lure – they’re not especially tanky but opponents will want to cut them off from being an unavoidable, constant source of chip damage.

I’m happy with how these turned out, and I’m happy with how my Guardian-centric units are shaping up this season. I’m running Warhost detachment, but there’s definitely a part of me wondering if I can make Guardian Battlehost work sometime. I think, though, that I’m better off learning one detachment well to start – as my partner is always telling me, finish one candy bar before you move on to the next one.